Ancienne gare de déportation de Bobigny

In the mid-2000s, the process that would lead to restoration of the site took shape and accelerated.

2005, a crucial year

The year 2005 is rich in events that would create the conditions favorable to the emergence of a project of restoration of the site.

On January 27th, a few days after the classification of the station as a Historical Monument, Simone Veil, president of the Fondation pour la mémoire de la Shoah [Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah], announced the creation of a memorial in Drancy.

On April 22nd, a prefectural decree established a steering committee, presided by the departmental prefect. He was responsible for collecting information and coordinating initiatives and undertakings connected to the memory of the deportation, in Drancy and Bobigny.

On March 16th, the French railroad network [RFF, Réseau ferré de France] turned over to the City of Bobigny, for a symbolic one-franc payment, the structure known as the "passenger building" of the old station.

In September, the site was vacated by the scrap iron company that had been in operation there since 1954.

Planning the project

In 2006, Bobigny’s Mayor Bernard Birsinger decided to implement a project of restoration of the old train station site of. He recruited a consultant to follow the project.

Subsequently, Bernard Birsinger’s successor Catherine Peyge took over and organized a consultation in September 2007 focused on the form and content of the project for the purpose of setting up institutional and financial partnerships. The project was underway.

Peyged’s thinking was based on the notion of the spirit of the site, which had been debated and defined at a scientific symposium of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), at which time the mayor of Bobigny presented her project.  Elsewhere, the major conceptual orientations of the project were presented to the steering committee that brought together the city’s principal partners in June 2008.

The site of the old train station had been forgotten and was about to be demolished when the City of Bobigny and several associations got together in the early 90s and rescued it from oblivion. Thanks to their efforts the site was classified as a historical monument in 2005.

In 1987, the national railroad company - the SNCF - planned to demolish the structure known as the “passenger building.” Georges Valbon appealed to Prime Minister Jacques Chirac and subsequently to PM Michel Rocard. In December 1988, after the intervention Jean-Claude Gayssot, Transportation and Maritime Minister, Valbon finally persuaded the SNCF to reconsider the demolition plan. At this point a group of associations became aware of the importance of the project and mobilized in its favor. They were joined in the early 1990s by the Association Fonds Mémoire d’Auschwitz (AFMA), which would play an important role. At that time the Association of Convoy N° 73 would hold its annual commemoration in Bobigny, on the 3rd weekend in May, of the departure of Convoy N° 73 for the Baltic states.

Institutional recognition first came in September 2001, when the Muette housing project in Drancy, which had been used as an internment camp during the Second World War and then reverted in 1948 to its original use as an ordinary low cost housing project [HLM], was classified as a historical monument.

The State confirmed this recognition of the Bobigny station, by decree, when the Regional Commission for patrimony and sites [Commission régionale du patrimoine et des sites (CRPS)] decided on January 15th, 2005 to inscribe the entire site in the supplementary Monuments Historiques inventory.

The site stands as the sole example in France of a deportation station currently abandoned and conserved in a condition close to its original layout. Though there are numerous projects for restoration of former internment camps, Bobigny is the only station that specifically bears witness to the history of the deportation. This is what makes it a unique site.

1946-1987: The oblivion

1954
Installation of the Lautard company on part of the site.

1979
The "passenger building" at the Bobigny station is rehabilitated by the Paris-Nord department of the SNCF Direction and then abandoned.

1987
The SNCF plans to demolish the “passenger building,” then “reconsiders” the demolition project after an intervention from the Transportation and Maritime Minister, acting on an appeal from Bobigny’s Mayor George Valbon.

1987-1988: Dangers of destruction

July 1st, 1987
In a letter addressed to the mayor of Bobigny the SNCF announced the probable demolition of the "passenger building".

April 12th, 1988
Georges Valbon, mayor of Bobigny and president of the Conseil Général, appeals to then Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, with a proposal to study a project for a Museum of the Deportation.

July 19th, 1988
Georges Valbon reiterates his request to Prime Minister Michel Rocard.

December 7th, 1988
Subsequent to the intervention of Transportation and Maritime Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot, the SNCF "reconsiders" its plan to demolish the structure.

1990s: Recognition from associations

August, 1993
Georges Valbon appeals in vain to the Minister of Culture requesting classification of the building as a historical monument.

October 10th, 1993
Mobilization of the Association Fonds Mémoire d’Auschwitz (founded in 1987), for the fiftieth anniversary of deportations from the Bobigny station.
A memorial plaque is inaugurated on the site of the station.

February-March, 1994
The AFMA plans to acquire the “passenger building” for a symbolic one-franc payment but the plan does not go through.

1994
Foundation of the Association of convoy N° 73, that hangs a memorial plaque commemorating this convoy that left from Bobigny with 878 men.

Late 1990s, early 2000s: institutional recognition

September, 1996
Bachelier Report: "The SNCF during the German occupation, 1940-1944"

June 21st-22nd, 2000
Colloquium: "A public enterprise during the war: the SNCF 1939-1945".

September 25th, 2001
The Cité de la Muette (former Drancy camp) is classified as a historical monument.

January 24th, 2005
Signature of the decree inscribing the site of the old train station in the Supplementary Inventory of the Monuments Historiques.

January 27th, 2005
Commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Simone Veil, president of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah announces plans for a memorial in Drancy.

April 22nd, 2005
A prefectural Decree outlines the creation of a steering committee "responsible for collecting information and coordinating initiatives and undertakings related to the memory of the deportation from Drancy and Bobigny".

March 16th, 2005
The City of Bobigny acquires the old passenger station and 1450 m² of adjoining land from the RFF in exchange for a symbolic one-franc payment.

March to December, 2005
The association Topographie de la mémoire [Topography of the memorial] contributes a study aimed at defining the preliminary scope of the project and (historical resources service) contributes a research paper on the history of the station.

Autumn, 2005
Complete liberation of the site by the Lautard company that had exploited it since 1970.